Breaking heavy textbooks in to smaller books for easy carrying.

Teachers and students rejoice! If you have ever resented lugging a heavy back-breaking textbook around campus when all you really needed were a few dozen pages in said book this instructable is for you. You will turn a large text book into smaller individually bound mini-books that fit inside of the big book.

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Step 1: Tear the book in to sections.

(Bibliophiles will have trouble with this step.) It's not recommended for older books as they may crack, but most modern textbooks are held together by glue. When you rip sections out of the book take care not to tear the pages. You also will want to start and end your sections on a chapter break. You will want about 120-300 pages per section, less will be too floppy... more will be too heavy.

Allmidoriann says: Jul 15, 2010. 7:45 PM

This is awesome. They should just make all books this way to begin with!

akrishnan3 in reply to AllmidoriannJun 4, 2012. 10:28 PM

But then you would have to search for each part, since they would be sold seperately

bryandhispup says: Sep 29, 2010. 12:00 AM

the only problem I see is when you want to sell the book back so you can afford groceries when you are a poor college student... So I guess I'll be poor and tired from lugging all my books around... HA HA HA Great Instructable Very Clear. Maybe explain the binding tape step a little more though.

akrishnan3 in reply to bryandhispupJun 4, 2012. 10:27 PM

You can just re-bind the book after the year is over.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-bind-your-own-Hardback-Book/

theawesomeninja says: Dec 4, 2010. 5:02 PM

That would soooo help with my Alg II/Trig book but my books are borrowed from the school (high school) guess that's one good reason to buy books...
You can still probably sell the books for more than the whole if you can convince them that the lighter separate weights is worth a torn book

akrishnan3 in reply to theawesomeninjaJun 4, 2012. 10:26 PM

You can just re-bind the book after the year is over.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-bind-your-own-Hardback-Book/

tipsypixy says: Jan 17, 2011. 5:49 PM

Why didn't I think of that BEFORE breaking my back caring my med surg books! YOU ARE AWESOME DUDE!!!

Chris Logan says: Sep 21, 2010. 1:04 PM

You couldn't sell them back to a book store. But you could still get maximum value out of them by selling them directly to another student.

In fact, if it was a nicely done job, I would buy a broken-book over one that's complete. Although I probably wouldn't pay more for it.

sipachan says: Aug 7, 2010. 6:49 PM

Great idea, but the problem is you will not be able to sell it back. In another words, you just lost $100+ value of the textbook.

futurebird (author) in reply to sipachanAug 8, 2010. 1:10 AM

I'm a prof. I get my books for free and never sell them since I will teach the course again! :D

hilarylt says: Jul 7, 2010. 4:38 PM

very cool....keep the backpack light

laubolgo says: Jun 29, 2010. 10:50 AM

Hey... really nice! Tks!!! It works excelent. - Lau from Costa Rica!

nygma says: Jun 3, 2010. 12:06 PM

I use to work as Alternative Media specialist for disable services, one of the things I use to do in order to scan student text books for conversion into braille, audio, etc was to walk all the books over to the copy center and have the binding cut off. Pretty much a blade drops down under pressure to cut the whole thing at once for nice clean edges. I believe most Kinkos would have that ability. I would even have them punch holes for use with plastic spiral binders. I ordered in bulk, so most students wanted thiers divided into individual chapters, which so they wouldn't have to lug around so many books.

As a side note, back in college, my professor had us cut up the same calculus book in this instructable! (it didnt improve my grades lol)

bluskychild says: May 28, 2010. 3:27 AM

This sounds like an awesome idea! I was trying to do this to one of my textbooks, but I am having a little trouble tearing to cover from the first section. Would you recommend using an exacto knife, or would another method be better?

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fungus amungus says: May 26, 2010. 2:50 PM

When I was traveling I did this to a few paperback books. Segmenting them made it easier to pack and I would ditch the sections I'd already read. Yes, I destroyed the book, but it was rather popular and I'm sure the world had more than enough copies to make up for it. I also didn't want to carry a few pounds of paper I'd already read.

This was also handy for travel guides. Why carry all the sections of places you'll never go to?

SomethingGood332 says: May 26, 2010. 2:01 PM

Wow, I buy my summer textbooks tomorrow, so you posted this just in time! It will kill the resell value at the school bookstore, but will probably increase online resell value. Even if it doesn't, not having to carry around a giant book is worth it. Wish I had known about this before business law when the book was, no joke, 7 in. thick!

blackstache says: May 26, 2010. 1:55 PM

I wonder if you could buy these anywhere, or if anyone would buy them from you